Comment on Watching ads while grandma is choking on a fish bone

• Hyperreality@kbin.social ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Of course not. Cyberpunk and tech noir usually isn't just about the future, it's arguably about now. More generally, science fiction is often used as a 'safe' way to criticise existing society or say what can't otherwise be said.

  Prime example: Tarkovski's science fiction films (Stalker, Solaris, ...), which smuggled very religious themes past the soviet censor, because 'it's only science fiction'.

  Make a movie glorifying terrorism? Likely jail sentence and on a list. Make a movie glorifying a terrorist that blows up parliament in a dystopian future? Cult classic.

  Make a tv episode where one of the main cast has a sexual relationship with a trans character, who is later forced to undergo gender reaffirming therapy in 1992? Impossible. Make it about Riker having a relationship with an alien who's not androgynous because her race finds gender weird? Prime time tv.

  Make a tv programme about the guilt of a Nazi who worked in a camp while the Jews were being exterminated? No way that's happening. Make a tv programme about the guilt of a space alien who worked in a camp while other space aliens were being exterminated? That particular Star Trek episode was broadcast in prime time, to wide acclaim.

  For this reason, and on a related note, anyone who complains about a science fiction show or movie being 'too political' is more often than not a moron and/or someone who's never watched or read scifi content but is pretending to be a fan.

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  • thepianistfroggollum@lemmynsfw.com ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Scifi has always been about sociological commentary.

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  • Jamie@jamie.moe ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    This is a very well written take. Have my upvote.

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  • Cracks_InTheWalls@sh.itjust.works ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    The Matrix comment there gave me a moment of sudden clarity. Literally never considered that interpretation until now.

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• Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I remember when cyberpunk’s vision of the future was grounded in ridiculous cynicism instead of a charitable assessment of reality.

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